Monday, January 23, 2012

Friday’s ruling by the Department of Health and Human Services proved yet again that ObamaCare’s critics are right. It’s a breathtaking attack not only on the First Amendment’s guarantee of religious freedom, but also on the separation of church and state.

Kathleen Sebelius, the nominally Catholic HHS chief, bluntly informed religious medical institutions that offer services to the general public that she will indeed compel them to offer free birth control, sterilization and “morning after” pills as part of their employees’ health-care plans. They have exactly one year to get with the program or suffer the consequences.

That’s all their vehement objections to her August “guidelines” got them: “This additional year will allow these organizations more time and flexibility to adapt to this new rule,” read a department statement defending HHS’ insistence on what it euphemistically calls “preventive services.”

In other words, they have a year to figure out how to violate their religious beliefs and contravene church teaching. And if they choose to cancel their health-care plans rather than submit, they’ll incur a hefty annual fine under the tender mercies of ObamaCare.

Added bonus: This contemptuous slap at Catholicism and for mainstream Christianity in general comes wrapped in the guise of “compassion.”

Never mind that the administration just got its head handed to it by the Supreme Court over religious freedom. In a slam-dunk 9-0 vote, the justices this month slapped down Team Obama’s claim thatit, not religious institutions, has the right to decide who qualifies for the “ministerial exception” to employment-discrimination laws.

And yet it’s right there in the first words of the First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” had Attorney General Eric Holder’s ideologues bothered to look.

Now Sebelius follows up with more of the same. Conservatives have been howling for years about the left’s war on traditional faith, and now here it is in all its naked, unabashed glory.

Fine, there’s a fig-leaf “exemption” for institutions that primarily employ or serve members of their own faith. But that’s nearly meaningless in the real world, where Catholic hospitals, a major part of the American health-care system up to now, employ and offer services to everyone.

Lawsuits against the ruling have already been announced, and the US Conference of Catholic Bishops says it will jump in as well. “This shouldn’t happen in a land where free exercise of religion ranks first in the Bill of Rights,” said New York Archbishop (and cardinal-designate) Timothy Dolan, who called the decision “literally unconscionable.”

And it’s not just Catholics who should be sounding the alarm bells. The administration’s contempt for principles of faith shows that ObamaCare will do precisely what the critics warned: crush private medical insurance and put nonconforming medical institutions out of business.

Coming just weeks after the president’s recent illegal appointments (to the National Labor Relations Board and the new “consumer credit” agency), Sebelius’ high-handed attitude is another sign of how the administration means to proceed: Rule by executive fiat, and damn the Constitution.

The high court’s ruling on the “ministerial exemption” should be enough to get her edict tossed out – but it’s still unclear how the justices will rule on ObamaCare itself. Happily, with oral arguments set for March, we should know before Election Day.

But until the health-care law is struck down or repealed, expect to see a new breed of “conscientious objectors” — this time in defense of both faith and the Constitution.

In his extraordinary book, “Dupes: How America’s Adversaries Have Manipulated Progressives for a Century”, the historian, Dr. Paul Kengor, stated in his introduction that “We now know that American Communists and their masters in Moscow were acutely aware that they could never gain the popular support they needed to enlist the support of a much wider coalition that could help them push their private agenda.”

Most threatening, however, was Dr. Kengor’s discovery that “it was nothing short of stunning to research this book during the presidential bid of Barack Obama and hear so many of the names in my research surface repeatedly in the background of the man who became president of the United States of America. The way in which so many names and themes from the Cold War past aligned and made their way into Obama’s orbit was chilling.”

Obama’s December 8th speech in Osawatomie, Kansas revealed to anyone paying any attention that the President is a Communist. Speaking of the nation’s economic system that has created the greatest wealth for the most people anywhere, Capitalism, Obama said, “It doesn’t work. It has never worked.”

No one would argue that capitalism is “fair”, nor would they argue that life is “fair.” These are things that never were and never will be, but Obama’s reelection campaign theme will be that Americans are suffering because of Capitalism, because of a lack of fairness.

In a December 8 Washington Times commentary, Jeffrey T. Kuhner wrote, “There is only one problem with the White House’s narrative: It’s completely false. Mr. Obama is not a defender of the middle class but has been its mortal enemy. His policies have impoverished working-and-middle-class Americans.”

Other than the utterly brain-dead liberals for whom facts are meaningless, most Americans understand, as Kuhner pointed out, “His massive stimulus failed to restore economic recovery…his trillion-dollar deficits and skyrocketing debt have mortgaged the future of our children…Obamacare suffocates businesses, stifles job creation, and adds another unsustainable entitlement. It is creeping socialized medicine, which is wrecking the world’s finest health care system.”

Rush Limbaugh denounced the speech as “alien to American ideals and principles…your vision for this country is not rooted in any—not one—American tradition.”

Obama’s history, what is known of it given his extensive efforts to hide the facts that are usually available about a candidate or president, is testimony to the fact that he is a Communist and the only reason this remains clouded to many Americans has been the shameful failure of the Fourth Estate, the liberal mainstream media, to expose it.

He remains in office due to the failure of both the media and the Republican Party to cite the U.S. Constitution’s prohibition against anyone holding the office who is not a “native-born” American. Obama’s father was a Kenyan, a subject of Great Britain. He should not have been on the Democratic Party ballot and he should not be in the Oval Office as this is written.

Many of the known facts about Obama were published in Dr. Jerome Corsi’s 2008 book, “The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality.” Thirty-five pages of footnotes citing the documentation of the facts cited were there for anyone to read. Obama was born into a family of Leftists. As a youngster he was mentored by Frank Marshal Davis, a member of the Communist Party USA.

Of his early college years, Obama said in his memoir that at Occidental, “To avoid being mistaken for a sellout, I chose my friends carefully. The more politically active black students. The foreign students. The Chicanos. The Marxist professors and structural feminists and punk-rock performance poets.”

Obama’s political career began with a fund-raiser in the living room of two dedicated, self-identified Communists, Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn. As Dr. Corsi pointed out, “The problem is that Obama sought out his relationships with the Alinski organization, the Ayers-Dohrn radicals, the scandal-ridden (Antoin ‘Tony’) Rezko, Reverand (Jeremiah) Wright and black-liberation theology, and Farrakhan and the Black Muslims. At the time he wanted these ties.” In the course of his 2008 campaign he rejected all efforts to tie him to these individuals.

The appointment of the many “czars” to oversee and guide the actions of government departments and agencies became the subject, first of ridicule, followed by the realization he was infiltrating the government with known radicals of different stripes. The one that quickly gained attention was Van Jones, an avowed Communist. When that became known, Jones resigned.

The Osawatomie speech was classic Obama. In the past he has sought to align himself with former presidents and this time around it was Theodore Roosevelt, a progressive. As Americans have sought to peel away the many layers of deceit surrounding Obama, the single abiding factor in his life is Communism. The views he expressed were a combination of class warfare and an attack on Capitalism.

In 2008 Americans, reeling from the financial crisis that all too conveniently began in the final months of the Bush43 presidency, were duped into believing that a man with nothing more than a message of “hope and change” was a messiah that would lead the nation out of its problems.

Obama was and is the first Communist President of the United States of America. We have a President who rails against “millionaires and billionaires”, corporations, Wall Street, and all other aspects of our Capitalist economy.

We have a President and a Democratic Party that have tipped their hat to the Occupy Wall Street radicals.

We have a President and a Democratic Party totally aligned with the unions in America, some of which put the auto industry in jeopardy, others in the public sector that have plundered state treasuries with sweetheart deals for pensions and health plans, and who we have seen thuggishly oppose the restructuring of collective bargaining. It is why a close ally of Obama, Andy Stern, the former president of the Service Employees International Union (SIEU), praised the Chinese Communist economic model in a December 1 Wall Street Journal article.

And we now have a President who says Capitalism “doesn’t work” and “It has never worked.” That is utterly absurd, but it reveals his ideology and his goal of fomenting a Communist revolution in America by bankrupting the nation to achieve it.

Obama is a horrid aberration, the result of a combination of the Democratic Party, the liberal media, and the education community to dumb down Americans and make them ready for the Communist America that Obama advocates.

Communism did not die with the collapse of the Soviet Union. It is alive and well in Russia, China, Cuba, Vietnam and in Venezuela. The soft form, Socialism, has brought a number of European nations to ruin and threatens the U.S.

In 2010 Americans returned power in the House of Representatives to the Republican Party. We must finish the job in the Senate and in the White House in 2012. If we do not, the America we love will perish.

Sunday, January 22, 2012

January, 16, 2012: Iraqi security forces inspect the scene of a car bomb attack outside the northern city of Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, Iraq.

BAGHDAD – Iraq's Shiite-led government cracked down harshly on dissent during the past year of Arab Spring uprisings, turning the country into a "budding police state" as autocratic regimes crumbled elsewhere in the region, an international rights groups said Sunday.

"Iraq is quickly slipping back into authoritarianism," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director for the New York-based group. "Despite U.S. government assurances that it helped create a stable democracy (in Iraq), the reality is that it left behind a budding police state," she said.

Protests against Iraq's U.S.-backed and democratically elected government erupted around the country in February 2011, alongside other demonstrations in the Arab world.

While protests in other countries demanded the downfall of autocratic regimes, most of the demonstrations in Iraq pushed for improved services like reliable electricity and water, and an end to corruption.

The government clamped down, sometimes sparking bloody clashes -- as when 14 were killed in confrontations between security forces and civilians across the country during the Feb. 25 protests billed as the "Day of Rage."

A year later, with U.S. troops withdrawn and Iraq's government mired in a political crisis, the protest movement has all but died out. Demonstrators who gather in Baghdad's central Tahrir Square are usually outnumbered by the security forces watching over them.

"Iraqis are quickly losing ground on the most basic of rights, including the right to free speech and assembly," said Samer Muscati, an Iraq researcher for the group. "Nowadays, every time someone attends a peaceful protest, they put themselves at risk of attack and abuse by security forces or their proxies," he said.

Prison brutality, including torture in detention facilities, was a major problem throughout the year, the group's annual report said.

In February 2011 Human Rights Watch uncovered a secret detention center, controlled by elite forces who report to the prime minister's military office.

The group claimed authorities transferred more than 280 detainees to the facility since the beginning of 2010 and charged detainees were tortured there with impunity. Government officials denied the facility's existence and alleged abuses.

I have just posted a new article on my website and I'm happy to send you a copy.

Feel free to email me with any comments and I will do my best to reply

Melanie Phillips

Well well. So all those folk who were loudly asserting that Romney was a shoo-in have been made to look idiots yet again by Gingrich's convincing win in South Carolina. All those who said the onslaught upon Gingrich by his ex-wife Marianne would leave him dead in the water, particularly among women, have been shown to be spectacularly out of touch. Gingrich actually won more women's votes than his opponents.

Gingrich's victory has been put down to his stunningly effective performance in the TV debate. And that surely reflects the fact that, just as I have been saying throughout, the extremities of our times mean that Americans need to focus relentlessly on one question alone: can the Republican candidate beat Obama and thus save America from its monumental threats both at home and abroad?

What they saw in South Carolina was that, when Romney's financial Achilles heel was pricked he stumbled and flailed; but when Gingrich's sexual Achilles heel was similarly pricked he wrenched out the knife and hurtled it back at his questioner.

That's what is needed to beat Obama. South Carolina appears to have realised that in order to bring that about, the candidate must be a gladiator rather than a blancmange. The gladiator in question may be flawed and far from ideal in a number of respects, but if he's the only one who can fell his opponents rather than be felled by them, he wins.

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Many years ago as a flight commander in an F-4 squadron, I was required to write an

OER (Officer Effectiveness Report) on each of the pilots and WSOs (weapon systems officers) in my charge. This onerous task was flawed from the outset since it was assumed that the rater would render a totally honest assessment of an individual officer’s unique skills and capabilities as compared to a baseline his peers.

Of course this did not happen, as the slightest negative comment would almost always assure an undeserved denial of promotion… hence the infamous OER inflation creep emerged… where almost everyone was awarded “walk on water” evaluations.

Consequently, continuing PME (professional military education), endorsements from higher headquarters, the officer’s official picture, error free and perfectly typed and punctuated paperwork, assurance that every available space for comments was used, additional duties, and a dozen other irreverent factors that had little or nothing to do with the officer’s primary job as a fighter pilot or WSO.

All of this flawed process was exacerbated by the fact that this occurred during the “pre-computer era”, thus denying the rater with data banks of “flowery remarks”, synonyms, spell checkers, and printers.

It was during this period that a Marine F-4 exchange pilot was assigned to my flight. After about six months, I got a letter fromHQ Marine Corps requesting that I prepare an OER for this pilot.

The OER form was enclosed, with instructions that it was to be

prepared by me, in my handwriting and returned as a single copy.

There were several blocks to be checked, followed by a space for remarks that was only adequate for two to three short sentences… then above my signature block was a question with two choices: “Would you go to combat with this officer?” Check either “yes or no.”

Talk about cutting through the crap! I was impressed at the time and to this day have never forgotten its bottom line simplicity and brilliance.

Try applying that test to the current crop of “leaders” who are in charge of America’s destiny.

For starters:

President BarrackObama

Vice-President JoeBiden

The President’s cabinet

The President’sCzars

Attorney General Eric Holder

A majority of our elected congress

The main stream media

Al Gore and his Climate Change BS

Senator John (two silver stars) Kerry

Others too numerous to mention

Maybe it’s just me, but I damn well would not willingly go to combat with any of them. How in hell did we let this happen before our very eyes… on our watch? We as a nation had better get a grip, turn out in mass for the 2012 national election and throw these self-serving jerks out of power before it is too late. I fear that four more years of political correctness, blatant socialist/Marxist policies, lack of backbone and disregard for our constitution will do irreparable damage.

If we are to remain the greatest nation the world has ever seen, which was built on the loyalty, integrity and sacrifice of generations of patriots whose gym bag our current leadership couldn’t carry… we best get it done.

Last week, Tehran circles tipped a “top secret message” from President Obama to Iran’s “Supreme Guide” Ali Khamenei. This week, almost everyone seemed to know (or pretend to know) something about the mystery letter. In an editorial Thursday, the daily Kayhan, published by Khamenei’s office, claimed Obama had adopted “a supplicatory tone, seeking to ingratiate himself in the eyes of the supreme guide.”

But let’s start with what everyone agrees about the letter:

* This is the third time that Obama has written to Iranian leaders. The first two letters were addressed to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who didn’t bother to reply but later sent two letters of his own to Obama, getting no response.

* By writing to Khamenei, Obama acknowledged that his administration no longer regards Ahmadinejad as the key player in Tehran.

* By writing to Khamenei, Obama returns to a tradition started by President Jimmy Carter, who sent handwritten letters to the late Ayatollah Khomeini. Khomeini didn’t bother to reply, either.

* Obama’s letter was delivered by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a sign that Washington regards Baghdad as a possible mediator with Tehran.

* In America, news of the letter came under headlines about Obama warning Tehran that closing the Strait of Hormuz was a “red line.” In Tehran, the headline was different: “Obama promises to take no hostile action against the Islamic Republic!”

On the surface, at least, Tehran sees the letter as a sign of weakness. “The letter begins with lots of bluster,” says Hussein Ebrahimi, vice-chairman of the Committee on National Security at the Majlis, Iran’s ersatz parliament. “Later, however, the American adopts a conciliatory tone and invites the Islamic Republic to negotiation. Obama pledges not to take hostile action against us.”

Ebrahimi said other factors might have persuaded Obama to write the letter — Iran’s “rising power in the region,” or “electoral calculations” (“He does not want Iran to turn him into another Jimmy Carter”).

Hussein Naqavai, another Majlis member, claims Obama “acted out of fear.” “Obama has proposed a red telephone between Tehran and Washington,” he says. “This is an admission that Iran should be consulted on major international issues.”

Iranian leaders often claim that their Islamic Republic is the successor to the USSR as challenger to American “world domination.” Mohsen Rezai, a former Revolutionary Guard commander, sees Obama’s letter as “a clever maneuver to present the United States as guarantor of security in international waters.”

“However,” Rezai says, “that role is now assumed by Iran.”

Rhetoric aside, the letter may have opened a window of opportunity to reduce the current tension. The fact that, this time, no one in Tehran says that the letter has been consigned to the trash can is remarkable in itself.

Another novelty is that everyone more than hints at the possibility of an answer. “We shall study the matter carefully,” says Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast. “If we deem that an answer is needed, the necessary steps will be taken.”

Also interesting is the lack of an outright rejection of Obama’s reported suggestion of “talks on all issues, with full respect for mutual interests.” This is important because, under a notorious law passed by the Majlis in the 1980s, any talk with the US is forbidden.

More important, perhaps, leaks about the letter produce what looks like an agenda for possible direct talks between the foes.

To start with, it appears that Obama has made no mention of Iran’s controversial uranium-enrichment program. Demands that the program be scrapped are at the center of four US-backed resolutions passed by the UN Security Council.

Iran, however, wants the US and its allies to accept the program as a fait accompli. “We should move beyond that old issue,” said Foreign Minister Ali-Akbar Salehi this week.

By putting the focus on the Strait of Hormuz, Obama makes it easy for Iran to appear to be making concessions. Iran doesn’t want the strait closed because that would mean an end to its own oil exports; no other country in the world would lose more. By solemnly undertaking not to close the strait, Iran would give Obama a meaningless concession, but something that might look good for the president in his re-election campaign.

In exchange, Iranian leaders openly demand that Obama drop the threat of an embargo on Iran’s oil exports. “If Obama has a red line, so do we,” says Majlis member Esmail Kothari. “Our red line is an oil embargo.”

Obama may have blundered his way into persuading the Iranians to rise to the bait for the first time in a long while. Whether they bite or not is a different matter

Though the president just rejected a permit for the controversial project, Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman told Fox News that he expects to send the Obama administration a new proposed route for the pipeline well before Election Day.

"I fully expect we could get it done certainly in the early September, August time frame," the governor told Fox News on Thursday. "I would send the letter back to the president of the United States saying we approve it and if he were decisive, he could turn around and approve it shortly thereafter, well before the November election."

The White House, in justifying its decision to turn down the permit, blamed Republicans for forcing a decision in a tightened time frame. Congressional Republicans had attached a provision to last year's short-term payroll tax cut extension requiring a presidential decision on Keystone in 60 days, a time frame administration officials warned would not be sufficient.

But all along, administration officials have also invoked the concerns over the pipeline of Nebraska officials, including Heineman, in justifying their handling of the issue.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, in reviewing the history of the dispute Wednesday, said "concerns were raised about the environmental impacts on the air and water quality in Nebraska."

Yet while those concerns contributed to the State Department decision late last year to delay the federal review process, top Nebraska officials were not on board with the president's decision Wednesday to reject the permit.

"Right now, I think they're looking for a convenient excuse to get it beyond the election. Let's do what's right for the country. Let's put America back to work," Heineman said.

Nebraska lawmakers had earlier raised concern about the impact the initial pipeline route, which runs from Canada to Texas, would have on an important and vast underground water source in Nebraska. In November, the governor signed a bill that would pay for a new state-run environmental study of a new route that TransCanada agreed to pursue.

But Heineman disputes any suggestion that the federal government needs lots of time to review his state's new study. He said the project already received initial approval from the State Department for the earlier route, before the department backed off upon objections from environmentalists.

As Obama rejected the permit for Keystone saying there wasn't enough time to review at the federal level, Heineman questioned why -- since the state and the company have already agreed to reroute the pipeline through a less sensitive area.

"So again, the State Department had already approved the route that was much more environmentally sensitive, and so in my view, he should have said 'yes' to allow this to move forward. There's so much at stake for this country," he said.

Heineman said his state will have completed the new study by about August, and sees no reason for further delay.

"I would send a letter to the Department of State saying in Nebraska, we approve," he said. "At that stage, all they've got to then say it's in the national interest. And again, I think you could say that today. They've been at this for three years."

Nebraska Republican Sen. Mike Johanns echoed Heineman's concerns in a statement Wednesday. He said Obama's decision was a sign he "lacks faith" in Nebraska's ability to choose a new route.

"By arguing that the Nebraska route could force them to deny the permit, he's implying Nebraska can't get it right. There is no legitimate justification for the delay. To suggest a few dozen miles of the route in Nebraska -- which will be identified by the governor, consistent with the law -- affects the overall public interest for more than 1,600 miles of pipeline is laughable and reeks of political gamesmanship," he said.

But Obama and his team said Republicans forced his hand. Obama said in a statement Wednesday that his call was "not a judgment on the merits of the pipeline, but the arbitrary nature of a deadline that prevented the State Department from gathering the information necessary to approve the project and protect the American people."

Carney said Thursday it is a fallacy to suggest that anything other than the insistence by House Republicans to impose the 60-day deadline is responsible for the decision.

TransCanada has already announced that it will seek a new permit at the federal level.
Republicans in Congress also said they would not throw in the towel on the issue. Some called for Obama to reverse his decision.

Yet the debate is steeped in election-year politics. Obama is caught between two factions of his base on the decision over Keystone, a reality that critics claimed contributed to the decision to delay the project in the first place. Unions are clamoring for the pipeline, saying thousands of jobs are at stake, while environmentalists are vehemently opposed to it.

The environmentalists applauded Obama for his announcement Wednesday.

"President Obama has shown bold leadership in standing up to Big Oil and rejecting the Keystone XL pipeline," Erich Pica, president of Friends of the Earth, said in a statement.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Kulula is a low-cost South-African airline that doesn't take itself too seriously.Check out their new livery! And have a read about their Customer RelationsAFTER the pictures.
WHAT A PITY KULULA DOESN'T FLY INTERNATIONALLY -WE SHOULD SUPPORT THEM IF ONLY FOR THEIR HUMOUR - SO TYPICALLY SOUTH AFRICAN.Kulula is an Airline with head office situated in Johannesburg . Kulula airline attendants make an effort to make the in-flight "safety lecture" and announcements a bit more entertaining.
Here are some real examples that have been heard or reported:
On a Kulula flight, (there is no assigned seating, you just sit whereyou want) passengers were apparently having a hard time choosing, when a flight attendant announced,
"People, people we're not picking out furniture here, find a seat and get in it!"
---o0o---
On another flight with a very "senior" flight attendant crew, the pilot said,
"Ladies and gentlemen, we've reached cruising altitude and will be turningdown the cabin lights. This is for your comfort and to enhance the appearance of your flight attendants."
----o0o---
On landing, the stewardess said,
"Please be sure to take all of your belongings.. If you're going to leaveanything, please make sure it's something we'd like to have."
----o0o---
"There may be 50 ways to leave your lover, but there are only 4 waysout of this airplane."
---o0o---
"Thank you for flying Kulula. We hope you enjoyed giving us the business as much as we enjoyed taking you for a ride."
---o0o---
As the plane landed and was coming to a stop at Durban Airport , a lone voice came over the loudspeaker:
"Whoa, big fella. WHOA!"
---o0o--
After a particularly rough landing during thunderstorms in the Karoo,a flight attendant on a flight announced,
"Please take care when opening the overhead compartments because, after a landing like that, sure as hell everything has shifted."
---o0o---
From a Kulula employee:
"Welcome aboard Kulula 271 to Port Elizabeth . To operate your seatbelt, insert the metal tab into the buckle, and pull tight. It works justlike every other seat belt; and, if you don't know how to operate one,you probably shouldn't be out in public unsupervised."
---o0o---
"In the event of a sudden loss of cabin pressure, masks will descendfrom the ceiling. Stop screaming, grab the mask, and pull it over your face. If you have a small child travelling with you, secure your maskbefore assisting with theirs. If you are travelling with more than onesmall child, pick your favorite."
---o0o---
"Weather at our destination is 50 degrees with some broken clouds,but we'll try to have them fixed before we arrive. Thank you, andremember, nobody loves you, or your money, more than Kulula Airlines."
----o0o---
"Your seats cushions can be used for flotation; and in the event ofan emergency water landing, please paddle to shore and take themwith our compliments."
---o0o---
"As you exit the plane, make sure to gather all of your belongings. Anything left behind will be distributed evenly among the flightattendants. Please do not leave children or spouses.." (Awww)
---o0o---
And from the pilot during his welcome message:
"Kulula Airlines is pleased to announce that we have some of the bestflight attendants in the industry. Unfortunately, none of them are onthis flight!"
---o0o—
Heard on Kulula 255 just after a very hard landing in Cape Town : The flight attendant came on the intercom and said,
"That was quite a bump and I know what y'all are thinking. I'm here to tell you it wasn't the airline's fault, it wasn't the pilot'sfault, it wasn't the flight attendant's fault, it was the asphalt."
---o0o—
Overheard on a Kulula flight into Cape Town , on a particularly windy and bumpy day: During the final approach, the Captain really had tofight it. After an extremely hard landing, the Flight Attendant said,
"Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to The Mother City. Please remainin your seats with your seat belts fastened while the Captain taxis what's left of our airplane to the gate!"
---o0o—
Another flight attendant's comment on a less than perfect landing:"We ask you to please remain seated as Captain Kangaroo bouncesus to the terminal."
---o0o—
An airline pilot wrote that on this particular flight he had hammeredhis ship into the runway really hard. The airline had a policy whichrequired the first officer to stand at the door while the passengersexited, smile, and give them a "Thanks for flying our airline". He saidthat, in light of his bad landing, he had a hard time looking the passengers in the eye, thinking that someone would have a smart comment. Finally everyone had gotten off except for a little old ladywalking with a cane. She said,
"Sir, do you mind if I ask you a question?"
"Why, no Ma'am," said the pilot. "What is it?"
The little old lady said,
"Did we land, or were we shot down?"
---o0o—
After a real crusher of a landing in Johannesburg , the attendant came on with, "Ladies and Gentlemen, please remain in your seats until Captain Crash and the Crew have brought the aircraft to a screeching halt against the gate. And, once the tire smoke has cleared and the warning bells are silenced, we will open the doorand you can pick your way through the wreckage to the terminal.."
---o0o—
Part of a flight attendant's arrival announcement:
"We'd like to thank you folks for flying with us today.. And, the next time you get the insane urge to go blasting throughthe skies in a pressurized metal tube, we hope you'll think ofKulula Airways."
---o0o—
Heard on a Kulula flight:
"Ladies and gentlemen, if you wish to smoke, the smoking sectionon this airplane is on the wing.. If you can light 'em, you can smoke 'em." (Oh Darn) ---o0o---

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

LIKE MOTHER, LIKE DAUGHTER, LIKE FATHER, LIKE DAUGHTER

Richard Rubin Sentenced to Ten Months in Federal Prison[Image]
RICHARD RUBIN AND DIANA WASSERMAN-RUBINRichard Rubin — husband of former Broward County Commissioner Diana Wasserman-Rubin, who still faces seven felony charges of her own — was sentenced this morning to ten months in federal prison.Rubin, 66, pleaded guilty in April to federal tax evasion after failing to report $100,000 in fees he received from the town of Davie for a land deal he brokered in 2004.With attorney David Bogenschutz at his side, Rubin managed to get only ten months up the river — which is in accordance with sentencing guidelines but much less than the maximum penalty of five years.Rubin had said in court that he and the wife faced financial burdens from damage done to their home by Hurricane Wilma and also owed on a loan he could not repay — which is why he attempted to cheat on his taxes a bit.That also wasn’t too long after Rubin took in $1.1 million for writing grants for the town of Southwest Ranches — grants that were approved in part by the votes of his wife while she was a county commissioner.Then, the probable-cause affidavit released last year contended, the couple was living quite lavishly — including spending money on artwork, cruises, vacations to Europe, and a $150,000 home repair project.Rubin wasn’t charged with tax evasion until April of this year.The State Attorney’s Office, however, charged Wasserman-Rubin last year with seven counts of felony unlawful compensation related to her votes for her husband’s grant-writing.Rubin has until August 31 to report to his new home at a minimum-security prison.

Thank you for contacting the Office of The Governor regarding your concerns with the Keystone Pipeline. I am including links to our Congressional Delegation, the ND Pipeline Authority and information on the proposed new refinery as per your request.

Contact Form Submission

CommentsSo if Obama doesn't want the pipeline..Why don't you quickly put a consortium together to build the first of a group (If needed) of Refineries in North Dakota to process the Oil from Canada (Including Canada Investors) and Process the Oil There in North Dakota... Makes sense to me ? Oil Companies will invest in this instead of shipping it all the way to Texas..Hell Everybody will invest in this..... Bill Holland billinmissouri@yahoo.com

JEANNINE BARRY, COUNTRY FROM THE UK ON FREE ZONE MEDIA

LET'S HAVE A LITTLE ROCK AND ROLL ?
TURN THE VOLUME ALL THE WAY UP ! ENJOY !

MUSIC - VICTOR BAILEY - JAZZ - STORY COMING ABOUT THIS MAN - EDITOR HERE, AND THE PASS,

VICTORY BAILEY JR IS CONSIDERED ONE OF THE MOST FAMOUS JAZZ BASSIST IN THE WORLD !
I KNEW HIM WHEN HE WOULD COME TO MY STUDIO WITH HIS FATHER MORRIS BAILEY, PRODUCER OF R&B MUSIC IN THE PHILLY AREA, VICTOR,YOU WOULD SIT OFF TO THE SIDE OR IN THE CORNER AND WATCH - HE WAS LEARNING - BOY, WAS HE LEARNING ! HE NAILED IT! I AM PROUD TO CONSIDER HIM A FRIEND TODAY ! I PRESENT TO YOU: VICTOR BAILEY - HE IS NOW A PROFESSOR OF MUSIC AT THE BERKLEE COLLAGE OF MUSIC IN BOSTON, MASS.

MUSIC AND WORDS

YOU HAVE ARRIVED AT THE FREE ZONE

Merle Haggard Song "I THINK I'LL JUST STAY HERE AND DRINK"

AFTER WATCHING THE NIGHTLY NEWS

CONUNTRY MUSIC: THE BEST OF CONWAY TWITTY

WH NOTE: I WAS RUNNING A THEATER IN BRANSON MISSOURI WHEN CONWAY DIED IN A HOSPITAL IN SPRINGFIELD MISSOURI;

NINA WILEY WRITER - EDITOR AND JET PILOT.

Dr. Bill Smith (The Ozark Guru)

FREE ZONE FEEDJIT

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